Wage and Hour Violations Attorney in Connecticut and New York

Employers have a duty to pay employees according to the requirements set out in federal and Connecticut statutes regarding minimum wage, overtime compensation and frequency of payment. 

Employees Versus Independent Contractors

Frequently, employers, especially unsophisticated employers, are unaware of wage and hour laws.  For example, many employers attempt to minimize their payroll expenses by characterizing employees as independent contractors.  While the Internal Revenue Service has its definition of who is an employee versus an independent contractor, it is not the authority on the issue when it comes to wage and hour laws.  If your employer categorizes you as an independent contractor but you are really an employee, then you may have a series of wage-and-hour claims that you may bring against your employer: from failure to pay minimum wage if the number of hours that you work for your compensation is less than the minimum wage to failure to pay overtime if the number of hours that you work over forty (40) per week is not compensated at a premium rate to failure timely to provide compensation, as there are rules and regulations that require most employees to be paid weekly.

If you believe you have been misclassified as an independent contractor, you should contact Edgar Law LLC immediately in order to preserve the value of your claim.

Misclassified as Exempt From Overtime Compensation

Another tactic that employers use to minimize their payroll expenses is to classify a salaried employee as exempt from overtime.  Under relevant wage-and-hour law, there are a limited number of employees who are not owed overtime compensation and they are as follows: 1) salaried professionals like doctors, lawyers and accountants who earn at least $684 per week; 2) salaried computer analysts, computer programmers, software engineers or similar employees who earn at least $684 per week or $27.63 per hour; 3) outside sales employees; 4) highly compensated, salaried employees whose total compensation is at least $107,432 and have responsibilities and duties of certain executive, administrative or professional employees; 5) salaried executives who manage at least two other full-time employees and have the authority to hire and fire employees and earn at least $684 per week; and 6) certain administrative salaried employees who do office (non-manual) work and exercise discretion and independent judgment with respect to important matters.  If you are a salaried employee who does not fit squarely into one of these exemptions and you work overtime, then your employer is not paying you properly and you have a wage-and-hour claim for which your potential damages may include not only the overtime that you are owed but liquidated damages in the amount that your employer failed to pay you, along with an award of attorney’s fees and costs in bringing your case.

If you believe you have been misclassified as an exempt employee, you should contact Edgar Law LLC immediately in order to preserve the value of your claim.

Violations of the Tip Credit for Hospitality Workers

Employers who employ workers who routinely receive tips and use the so-called “tip credit” to pay employees less than minimum wage frequently run afoul of relevant law.  Often, employers will fail to notify employees of the use of the tip credit.  Just as often, employers will fail to keep adequate records of the tips that employees receive in order to confirm that their employees are making minimum wage.  Finally, employers sometimes will permit either non-tipped employees (by way of example, in the restaurant context, kitchen help or bus-persons who only clean tables) or management to take a share of pooled tips, which is a violation of wage-and-hour law.

If you are a tipped employee and you believe that your employer is not following proper procedure in your compensation, you should contact Edgar Law LLC immediately in order to preserve the value of your claim.